


making friends

by cmitch819



Category: The Bastards Crew
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence (mentioned), Canon-typical swearing, Gen, The City, as in tarsa and dani talk about weapons and stuff but like. no actual violence, maze time babey!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2020-05-07 04:46:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19202176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cmitch819/pseuds/cmitch819
Summary: The City wasn’t a good home. Dani hated it most of the time they were there. But it was still a home. It was still something familiar, something reliable.Okay,Dani thinks,so this place doesn’t feel like home. It doesn’t feel familiar. Can you fix that?





	making friends

Nothing is right.

Dani’s voice isn’t their own. This ship isn’t Dani’s home. Their thoughts are scattered and hazy for the first couple of days, making it hard to even try to talk to the others, let alone make friends. 

Dani has never been good at making friends, and they’re even less good at dealing with change.

But they have to prove themselves to this new crew. Here, they don’t have their reputation to rely on. They have to build themselves up from nothing, again.

Sometime during their first week on board the Cassandra, they’re sitting in engineering, absentmindedly twisting a piece of metal in their hands. They’ve performed every necessary check at least three times and there’s nothing left to do. They suppose they could go out and explore the ship, but they don’t feel up to talking to anyone right now.

The City wasn’t a good home. Dani hated it most of the time they were there. But it was still a home. It was still something familiar, something reliable. 

_Okay,_ Dani thinks, _so this place doesn’t feel like home. It doesn’t feel familiar. Can you fix that?_

The thought surprises them, but it feels good. It’s how Dani approached everything back in the City: like it was something they could fix. Like it was something with a definite solution. 

Like it was a puzzle.

Dani frowns in consideration, glancing slowly around the room. It’s big, fairly empty, and could definitely be better organized. The emptiness is uncomfortable, to say the least. Logically, Dani knows it’s probably to reduce hazards, but there was no empty space back in the City.

There doesn’t have to be empty space here, either.

Dani doesn’t know how long it’s been when they’re startled back to reality by the sound of the door to engineering slamming open. They wince at the noise, then glance upwards.

The person who’s just entered has messy brown hair that looks like it's been singed in a couple of places, which contrasts their fancy bustle and heels. Their face is flushed, and they frown down at Dani in confusion. “What the _fuck_ are you doing?”

It takes Dani a second to remember. They’re sprawled on the ground, twisted scrap of metal in hand, and the floor around them is covered in scratched notes and sketches and diagrams.

 _I couldn’t find a pen,_ Dani tries to say. Their voice doesn’t work, and in the time it takes them to try to speak, they remember they’re supposed to be making a good impression on the crew. “I’m doing my job,” they say instead. Their business voice, the reasonable monotone they developed in the City for dealing with particularly aggravating clients, works quite well when accompanied by the scraping of metal.

The person moves closer, squinting at the notes written on the floor. “‘Would need to restructure section by section to avoid-’ are you building a _maze?”_

“You can read my notes?” To say Dani’s handwriting was messy was an understatement, and that was when they used an actual pencil.

“Mine aren’t any better.” They grin. “Need help?”

The question instantly puts Dani on edge, and they take a moment to compose themselves before answering. “I may be new, but I am perfectly capable of doing my job.”

The person shakes their head. “Not what I meant. I like building stuff. Especially if it’s the kind of stuff that fucks with people.” They sit down on one of the pieces of machinery, carefully moving their bustle out of the way and pulling out a notebook. “I’m Tarsa, by the way. You’re Dani, right?”

“...Yes,” Dani replies. They take a breath, wanting to tell Tarsa to leave them alone, let them do their job, _this maze is mine it’s my home and you can’t touch it,_ but they stop. They want to make a good impression. They decide to give Tarsa a chance, see if they’ve got anything worth contributing. 

It’s exhausting, having to regulate every thought. Dani wishes they could just be themselves. But the City made it clear that although Dani Brooks was a phenomenal engineer, they weren’t really someone people wanted to get to know.

And Dani needs to get along with this new crew. They’re all they have left now. There will be no burning bridges and starting again the way there was before.

So when Dani speaks, all they say is, “What suggestions do you have?”

The other person looks at Dani like they’re crazy. “You haven’t even explained what you want to do yet.”

“Oh, I- I thought you read my notes?”

Tarsa snorts. “I read _one._ C’mon. I wanna know more. How does that sketch fit in, for starters?”

Dani is silent, and this time it isn’t because they’re censoring their thoughts from their words. This is completely new territory, and they have no idea what to say.

They don’t remember the last time someone has actually taken a genuine interest in their work.

Slowly at first, warily, like at any second Tarsa could turn around and mock them, Dani explains the maze. The idea is still in its early stages, but Dani knows they want it to be a kind of puzzle--definitely difficult to navigate, but not impossible if you know what you’re doing. Like the City, but if it were empty. A paradise, really, with only puzzles and quiet and the comfort of small spaces. They don’t say any of the last part to Tarsa, though. They doubt they’ll ever say it to anyone.

Dani keeps waiting for the other person to interrupt, for them to snort disdainfully or even just lose interest in Dani's rambling, fragmented sentences as they struggle to put parts of their idea into words. But Tarsa simply listens, asking clarifying questions where necessary. Their eyes are narrowed, head tilted, as if they're trying to solve a problem. _Or a puzzle._ It's almost comforting.

“That’s all the planning I’ve gotten through so far,” Dani says at last. “Uh. Sorry. That was a lot.”

Tarsa nods slowly. “You said you wanted to make it hard to navigate. What if there were traps?”

“Traps?”

“Yeah.” Tarsa scribbles in their notebook, copying down one of Dani’s sketches before adding onto it. “I mean, you’ve already basically solved the main problem, which is rewiring everything in here, so adding, say, pressure sensors isn’t that much of a hassle. What if one of the hallways was a minefield?”

“That sounds dangerous,” Dani says.

Tarsa looks up from their notebook, grinning maniacally. “Hell yeah it does.”

The idea of a new challenge like the one Tarsa is presenting is too much for Dani to resist. They’ve never actually designed anything weapon-related, and they think it would be interesting to try, especially since the idea of traps doesn’t undermine the purpose of the maze. If anything, it adds to it.

“It could be a puzzle,” they say, scratching additions onto their already messy sketch. “There’s a path through it, but if you don’t solve the puzzle right, you step on one of the sensors and-”

“Boom,” Tarsa says excitedly.

Dani shakes their head. “I don’t want to blow a hole in the ship. What about…” They think back, trying to remember the various things they’ve seen Olympians use as home security. “Flamethrowers? But that part would have to be away from the engines so the fuel doesn’t ignite.”

Tarsa nods, scribbling some more. “If you’re really into not blowing up the ship, there are always guns and shit. I _love_ building guns.”

“What about the main design of the maze? I want to figure that part out first. It has to be-” Dani stops as another idea occurs to them. “Hidden doors. Hidden _trapdoors._ Ladders.” They blink. “Sorry, that didn’t make any sense.”

“No, no, I get you,” Tarsa says. “What about a door that only opens once you walk around the same part of the maze in a circle a certain number of times? Make you think you’re going insane.”

“We’d need to track that. I could design something, I’ve done similar things before-”

Dani is aware of the filter between their thoughts and words disappearing, and when they remember, they apologize for what they assume sounds like nonsensical and unrelated phrases. Tarsa seems to take it in stride, though, and Dani finds themselves apologizing less and less, talking more and more as they and Tarsa bounce ideas off each other and start developing a more comprehensive design.

It’s...something. Dani’s old university classmates had been alright to work with, but they’d had their own ideas about how projects should look, and more often than not, Dani had to struggle to make sure any of their input was heard. Working with them had always felt like a competition, a fight to see who could have the best idea, who could make it a reality first, who could take the most credit in front of their professor. Dani had decided very quickly that they didn’t like group work, or any work that involved talking to other people.

Working with Tarsa is more like...Dani doesn’t know how to describe it, but it isn’t a fight. Their ideas are different, yes, but nothing they suggest really conflicts with the central goal of building a maze. They take what Dani gives them and add to it, and Dani does them same with their ideas, and the vague idea of creating familiarity that inspired the maze grows into something clear--an achievable goal, a solvable puzzle.

For the second time in... _how long has it been?_...Dani is interrupted by the sound of the door.

“You’re _still here?”_ A person with long blonde hair is standing in the doorway this time. Dani recognizes them from the two minutes they spent on the bridge of the ship a couple days ago, but they've never spoken.

“I haven’t been down here that long!” Tarsa replies. “It’s only been, uh…”

“You told Fara you’d get her those extra supplies _6 hours ago,”_ says the other person, shaking their head with exasperation. “We thought you'd left the ship or something without telling anyone.” They sigh, then look at Dani almost apologetically. “I don't think we've met. I'm Lise.”

Dani nods. It takes them a couple seconds to remember they’re supposed to reply. “Oh. Nice to meet you. I’m Dani.”

“Nice to meet you too.” Lise tilts their head, trying to make sense of the scratched metal on the floor. “What have you guys been working on down here?”

Tarsa and Dani glance at each other, and just as Dani is about to speak, Lise holds up a hand. “Actually, tell me later. You both need to eat first. And sleep.”

Dani almost protests. Now that they aren't focused entirely on the maze, though, they realize the world around them has grown...fuzzier, for lack of a better word. They definitely aren't doing their best work anymore--food and rest will help, even if they are inconvenient.

Tarsa gets as far as opening their mouth to protest before Lise gives them a look. 

Dani makes a mental note never to get on Lise’s bad side.

“Right,” Tarsa mutters, pulling themselves to their feet. They offer a hand to Dani. “Guess it’s lunchtime.”

“Can we work on this again?” Dani blurts as the three of them leave. They glance at Lise, then quickly add, “Not now, I mean. Later. Sometime.” They curse themselves for being unprofessional in front of someone new, but working with Tarsa has been the best time they’ve had in...well, since they can remember. 

They don’t want this to be a one time thing. The maze may have started out as Dani's project, but they get the feeling they wouldn't like working on it by themselves anymore.

Tarsa grins, and Dani feels themselves smile as well. “Hell yeah. We’ve got a maze to build.”

**Author's Note:**

> me: i don't write  
> me: writes almost 2k about my mechanisms oc in like two days


End file.
